Charting equipment

ABSTRACT

Charting equipment formed from a plurality of slidable panels vertically carried in a frame. Front and rear channels are provided on upper and lower rails in the frame, and the panels normally are positioned in side-by-side relation in the front channels. To move a panel horizontally it is lifted and pivoted from the front channel to be positioned in the back channel and slid behind an adjacent panel.

United States Patent Kuna [is] 3,657,458 [451 Apr. la, 1972 [54] CHARTIN G EQUIPMENT [72] Inventor: Joseph Kuna, Brighton, England [73] Assignee: Movitex (Signs) Limited, Wembley, En-

gland 22 Filed: 1811.8,1970

21 Appl.No.: 1,428

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Dec. 18, 1969 Great Britain ..61,64l/69 [52] US. Cl ..35/24 B, 40/64 [51] Int. Cl. ..G09b 19/18 [58] Field of Search ..35/24 A, 24 B; 40/63, 64, 65

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,521,382 7/1970 Chauvin ..35/24B 3,288,543 ll/l966 Sugerman ..40/65X 937,308 10/1909 Johnson ..40/63 2,839,857 6/1956 Teller ..40/64 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 121,989 8/1946 Australia ..35/24 B 1,044,944 11/1953 France ..35/24 B 521,596 5/1940 Great Britain ..35/24 R Primary Examiner-Robert W. Michell Assistant Examiner-Richard Carter AttorneyMilton .1. Wayne [57] ABSTRACT Charting equipment formed from a plurality of slidable panels vertically carried in a frame. Front and rear channels are provided on upper and lower rails in the frame, and the panels normally are positioned in side-by-side relation in the front channels. To move a panel horizontally it is lifted and pivoted from the front channel to be positioned in the back channel and slid behind an adjacent panel.

5 Claims, 9 Drawing Figures Patented April 18, 1972 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 A Uorney Patented April 18, 1972 3 Sheets-Sheet z A tlorney CHARTING EQUIPMENT This invention concerns charting equipment.

Many forms of charting equipment are known and often the equipment comprises a board having an information carrying face formed by a plurality of panels, means being provided on the panel to permit indicator members to be secured thereto, the members being placed in portions on the panels so as to indicate to a viewer of the board a particular item or series of items of information. Toenable information clearly to be displaced such indicator members are often associated with flexible members, for example, elastic cords so that information can be graphically displayed. Such flexible members are often referred to as flow lines.

Such charting equipment is generally used to record a particular series of items of information over a period of time, often a considerable period of weeks, months or even years and for a continuous flow line to be created the board would necessarily have to be particularly large unless the scales of the parameters of the information being charted were chosen to be inconveniently small. Thus when the flow lines extend from side to side of the board it is necessary to disconnect the flow lines from the board and start plotting again. This can be very inconvenient when it is desired to retain a part of the graph provided by the flow lines and to provide only a portion of the board with additional plotting space.

It has been proposed to form the face of the board from a series of panels positioned to lie side-by-side one by another and to withdraw from the board one of the particular panels carrying obsolete and unwanted information from the face thereof and to re-insert such panel into the face of the board after the remaining panels (still carrying information to be retained) have been rearranged in the board. However, because when the flow lines are being used such lines would traverse the panel to be removed such an arrangement is unsatisfactory insofar that if removal of the obsolete panel is carried out with great care either temporary removal of the flow lines would be necessary or otherwise severe stretching and misplacement of existing flow lines could occur. In addition wear of the delicate flow lines occurs resulting in subsequent, often difficult, replacement of the flow lines. It will be appreciated that should a flow line break it can be very time consuming merely to replot the information carried by such flow line and thus to keep the likelihood of wear of such lines to a minimum is essential.

It will also be appreciated that for charting equipment to be used to advantage it is essential that it is at all times indicating up to date information and thus to minimise the work necessary in re-orientating the panels and to produce a progressive chart of a satisfactory and useful size is of prime importance.

Thus one object of this invention is to provide an improved charting equipment, and in particular to provide a charting board, which can be used to produce a progressive chart, for example, a graph, in which panels forming the information face of the board need not be removed from the board even when it is desired to change their relative positions in such board.

Thus according to this invention there is provided charting equipment comprising a board comprising a frame and an information carrying face on the front of the frame, such face being formed by a plurality of panels arranged normally to lie adjacent one another edge to edge in co-planar relationship, such panels being provided with means whereby one or more indicator members can be releasably secured thereto and said frame defining a pair of guideways, a first of such guideways being provided for the panels when the latter constitute said information carrying face and a second guideway behind said first guideway into which any one or more of such panels may be placed when it is desired to alter the relative coplanar relationship of the panels, the guideways being dimensioned relative to the panels so that no panel can be positioned in such a way that the guideways would permit withdrawal of the same from the front of the frame but being of such dimensions to permit a panel in the second guideway to slide behind a panel located in the first guideway.

Conveniently the first and second guideways may be formed by two pairs of parallel spaced-apart channel members, the channel members constituting the first guideway being spaced apart sufficiently to permit upward movement of a panel positioned in the first guideway in and the pair of channels constituting the second guideway being located so that the lower channel of the second guideway is positioned at a level below the lower channel defining the first guideway.

Expediently the guideways may be located in a charting board and said board is provided with a countersunk back defining a shallow recess in which portions of flow lines to be plotted on the board are housed, such flow extending across said recess and through a slot in the back so that they extend across the back and to the front of the board.

In order that the invention may be more readily understood one particular embodiment of charting equipment suitable for attachment to the wall of a room, office, workshop or the like will now be described by way of example, and with reference to, the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary front perspective view of a charting board in accordance with this invention;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary rear perspective view of the board of FIG. 1;

FIGS. 3 and 3A are vertical cross sectional views of the board taken on the line III-III of FIG. 1 indicating particular positions of panels forming the information carrying face of the board;

FIG. 4 is a horizontal cross sectional view of the board taken on the line IV-IV of FIG. 1; and

FIGS. 5, 5A, 5B and 5C are fragmentary diagrammatic plan views indicating sequentially the positions taken up by said panels when their relative positions is being changed.

In this embodiment the charting equipment comprises a frame generally designated 1 having a front face a portion of which is an information carrying face formed by three panels 2, 3 and 4.

These panels are shown in FIG. 1 arranged in their normal display position in which they lie adjacent one another in edge to edge co-planar relationship. The panels 2, 3 and 4 are retained in this position by means of a first guideway constituted by channels 5, 6 formed in a bottom rail 7 and intermediate transom 8 of the board 1. A second guideway constituted by channels 9, 10 respectively provided in such rail 7 and transom 8 is also provided, such guideway being located parallel to, but immediately behind such first guideway.

The frame 1 is also provided with a top rail 11 and side members 12, 13 and said top and bottom rails 11, 7 and side members 12, 13 are rabbeted as indicated at 14 in FIG. 3 and 3A and a back panel 15 is secured thereto in such a way that a shallow recess 16 is created. It is the back panel which carries, with the aid of the side members 12,13, the intermediate transom 8.

The side of the transom 8 remote from the channels 6,10 is provided with a further channel 17 which locates, with the aid of a channel 18 in the top rail 11 a header panel 19 perforated at 20.

The back panel 15 is provided toward one side of the frame with a vertically extending slot designated 21 provided to permit passage to the infonnation carrying face of the board of flow lines 22 releasably coupled by loops to the rear of the board so as to lie in said recess 16 by means of a comb-line bracket 23. In this embodiment the flow lines are formed from an elastic cord. In this particular embodiment the panel 15 is formed in two parts although this is not essential.

The panels 2, 3 and 4 are each identical, are rigid and have a face 24 provided with regularly disposed perforations 25, the perforations being of such a size to receive as a friction or snap fit lugs provided on a variety of information significant markers. For the sake illustration name or date plates 26 and indicators 27 (coupled to the flow lines 22) are shown. Other markers of known form could, of course, be applied to such panels 2,3 and 4. Each of the frames is provided with a rearwardly directed peripheral flange to enhance rigidity.

The bottom rail 7 and transom 8 are respectively provided with bevelled flanges 28, 29 and at spaced-apart intervals these flanges have rebates 30, 31 arranged to receive locking plugs 33.

These plugs 33 are provided with rearwardly extending pins (not shown) which have the same pitch as the panel perforations 25 so that the pins, when engaged in the perforations are located in rebates 30, 31 and thereby prevent the panels from moving sideways of, or forwardly and backwards along, the guideways in which they are positioned.

Positioned between panel 2 and the slot 21 is a fixed perforated panel 34 for displaying supplementary information and this panel carries, along one side edge a second comb like bracket 35 which serves to locate and guide said flow lines 22. Such panel 34 may be used to store indicators affixed to flow lines not in use.

Located adjacent said panel 34 is a station for a card index unit generally designated 36. Behind this unit 36 is a separately formed partition 37 which is removable to give access to a store in which spare indicators, etc., may be kept.

The board is designed to be secured to a wall and appropriate fixings 38 are provided.

It is to be noted that the flow lines extend across the back of the board as well as being capable of extending across the front of the board. This permits the use of long lines reducing the risk of stretching of the same past their elastic limit.

In use the board is secured to a wall or the like and a series of flow lines 22 are secured to the board, their front terminal end portions being connected to indicates 27 secured releasably in the apertures of the perforated panel 34. Appropriate information is applied to the plates 26, for example the name of a month, and an appropriate card index unit 36 is secured to the board and this unit 36 carries further information relevant to the chart parameter. The information to be charted is then plotted across the information face of the board by moving the indicators 27 into appropriate apertures 25 in the panels 2,3 and 4 these indicators initially being placed in apertures 27 in the panel 2 and then being moved at intervals across to panel 3 and eventually to panel 4. When a situation arises in which the information has been plotted across all three panels and the information indicated by the flow lines on the panel 2 is no longer required but yet further information is required to be plotted, the panel 2 is moved from its position adjacent panel 3 to a position remote from panel 3 but adjacent panel 4. Movement of the panel 2 to the new position is carried out in the following manner.

A tool generally designated 39 is provided which has two spaced-apart pegs which are dimensioned and spaced apart in such a way they are co-aligned with any pair of the apertures 25 in the panels 2, 3 and 4. This tool is applied to the panel 2 so that its pegs 40 engage apertures 25 towards the base of panel 2 and the panel 2 is then lifted with the aid of this tool 39 and the base of the panel is moved backwardly into the second guideway so that its lower peripheral edge portion, which normally lies in the channel 5, can move backwardly and can then be dropped into channel 9. This position is indicated by dotand-pic lines in FIG. 3 from which it will be seen that at this stage the panel has taken up an inclined position with the flange 29 preventing the panel from falling from the board 1. The tool 39 can then be moved angularly to a small extent which results in this panel 2 moving so that the top thereof also moves into the second guideway as shown in FIG. 3A. This first step is diagrammatically indicated in FIGS. and 5A. The tool is then moved in a direction parallel to the channel 9 as indicated in FIG. 5A by an arrow with the result that the panel 2 moves into a position at least partially behind the panel 3.

The tool 39 is then withdrawn from this panel and the plugs 33 retaining panel 3 in a fixed position are withdrawn and this panel is then slid, if necessary with the aid of the tool 39, into the position from which the panel 2 has been removed. Such movement will permit access to be gained to the panel 2 with the tool so that the panel may be moved further along the channel 9 until it is positioned partially behind the panel 4. FIG. 58 indicates the position where the panel 3 has been moved into the original position of the panel 2 and shows the movement of the panel 2 from an intermediate position to a position in which it lies partially behind the panel 4. Plugs 33 securing panel 4 in a fixed position are then removed and, if necessary with the aid of the tool 39, such panel 4 is moved into the original position of panel 3. The plugs 33 can then be reinserted to retain panel 4 in original position of panel 3. Thereafter it is merely necessary to engage again the panel 2 with the tool 39 and to move the panel 2 into a position immediately behind the original position of the panel 4. The tool can then be moved angularly downwardly so that the upper portion of the panel 2 falls forwardly into the channel 6 in the original position of panel 4 whereafter the tool is lifted and the lower portion of such panel 2 is lifted from the channel 9 and is allowed to fall into channel 5. Plugs 33 are then introduced into the rebates 30 and 31.

The panels are thus rearranged and space provided for plotting of further information by means of the flow lines across the newly positioned panel 2. The information originally carried by the plate 26 on panel 2 would then, assuming this to be necessary, be changed.

It would be understood that when the flow lines again traverse the entire width of the indicating face of the board the same procedure would be applied but in this instance to the panel 3. Thus a continuous plotting can take place without any risk of disturbing the flow lines and without it being necessary to withdraw the panels from the front of the board with the result that the flow lines may become damaged or displaced. It should be noted from FIG. 3 that the dimensions of the panels 2,3,4 with respect to the guideways is such that sufficient clearance is provided above the panels when they lie in the channel 7 to permit lifting of the panels but similarly it should be noted that the positioning of the flanges 28 and 29 are such that even when the panel is in an inclined position it cannot fall from the frame and cannot be removed from the front of such frame.

It will be understood that the frame may be formed from a number of materials but conveniently the panels would be moulded from a rigid plastics material as could the frame although it is likely that at least portions of the frame such as the side members top and bottom rails and intermediary transom would be formed from extruded aluminum or aluminum alloy channel sections.

In FIG. 1 of the drawings the flow lines have been shown to be a series of single straight flow lines but it should be understood that with the aid of intermediary markers flow lines of a wavy" nature may be plotted. Likewise it should be understood that ancilliary markers significant of particular information could be independently applied to the chart in addition to the flow lines.

Iclaim:

1. A charting equipment comprising a vertically positioned board having a frame;

an information carrying face located on the front of said frame, said face including a plurality of face panels spaced side-by-side and mounted to be selectively slidable within said frame;

said frame including a lowermost rail having a front lower channel located adjacent a front upper edge of said rail and rear lower channel located adjacent thereto, said rear channel having greater depth than said front channel;

said frame having an uppermost rail in vertical alignment with said lowermost rail, both said uppermost and lowermost rails each having a rear recessed portion;

a back panel mounted vertically in said recessed portions;

said back panel having an attached transom member projecting frontwardly therefrom and located intennediate and being in vertical alignment with said uppermost and lowermost rails;

said member having a front flange and an intermediate projection that both extend downwardly to form a front tical spacing between said upper front channel and said lower front cannel being greater than the vertical dimension of said face panels, and the vertical spacing between a lowermost edge of said flange and the front upper edge of said lowermost rail being less than the vertical dimension of said face panels;

said face panels having means to receive marking indicators to which flow lines are attached to extend across said face panels; and

one of said face panels positioned between said front channels being adapted to be lifted free of said lower front channel so that its lower end can be swung rearwardly and lowered into said lower rear channel whereby its upper end can then be swung rearwardly to position said one face panel vertically between said rear channels so it can be slid behind an adjacent panel for horizontal relocation while said adjacent face panel can be slid horizontally to the position vacated by said one face panel thereby allowing said one face panel to be lifted forward to its relocated position between said front channels.

2. Charting equipment according to claim 1 in which said transom member includes an upwardly extending flange at its front end and an upwardly extending projection at an intermediate location to form a transom channel therebetween, said uppermost rail has a downwardly directed channel formed in vertical alignment with said upwardly directed transom channel, and a header panel is fitted therebetween to be non-removable therefrom.

3. Charting equipment according to claim 1 in which said face panel means comprise apertures adapted to receive a tool for lifting and sliding said panels.

4. Charting equipment according to claim 1 in which plugs are provided to selectively engage said face panels and lock them to said frame to prevent sliding movement.

5. Charting equipment according to claim 1 in which a slit is located in said back panel through which said flow lines pass to extend along the back of said back panel to be attached thereto. 

1. A charting equipment comprising a vertically positioned board having a frame; an information carrying face located on the front of said frame, said face including a plurality of face panels spaced side-byside and mounted to be selectively slidable within said frame; said frame including a lowermost rail having a front lower channel located adjacent a front upper edge of said rail and a rear lower channel located adjacent thereto, said rear channel having greater depth than said front channel; said frame having an uppermost rail in vertical alignment with said lowermost rail, both said uppermost and lowermost rails each having a rear recessed portion; a back panel mounted vertically in said recessed portions; said back panel having an attached transom member projecting frontwardly therefrom and located intermediate and being in vertical alignment with said uppermost and lowermost rails; said member having a front flange and an intermediate projection that both extend downwardly to form a front upper channel in vertical alignment with said front lower channel, said flange being longer and extending downwardly further than said intermediate projection; said projection and said back panel forming a rear upper channel in vertical alignment with said rear lower channel; said face panels normally positioned to extend between said upper front channel and said lower front channel, the vertical spacing between said upper front channel and said lower front channel being greater than the vertical dimension of said face panels, and the vertical spacing between a lowermost edge of said flange and the front upper edge of said lowermost rail being less than the vertical dimension of said face panels; said face panels having means to receive marking indicators to which flow lines are attached to extend across said face panels; and one of said face panels positioned between said front channels being adapted to be lifted free of said lower front channel so that its lower end can be swung rearwardly and lowered into said lower rear channel whereby its upper end can then be swung rearwardly to position said one face panel vertically between said rear channels so it can be slid behind an adjacent panel for horizontal relocation while said adjacent face panel can be slid horizontally to the position vacated by said one face panel thereby allowing said one face panel to be lifted forward to its relocated position between said front channels.
 2. Charting equipment according to claim 1 in which said transom member includes an upwardly extending flange at its front end and an upwardly extending projection at an intermediate location to form a transom channel therebetween, said uppermost rail has a downwardly directed channel formed in vertical alignment with said upwardly directed transom channel, and a header panel is fitted therebetween to be non-removable therefrom.
 3. Charting equipment according to claim 1 in which said face panel means comprise apertures adapted to receive a tool for lifting and sliding said panels.
 4. Charting equipment according to claim 1 in which plugs are provided to selectively engage said face panels and lock them to said frame to prevent sliding movement.
 5. Charting equipment according to claim 1 in which a Slit is located in said back panel through which said flow lines pass to extend along the back of said back panel to be attached thereto. 